Page:United States Reports, Volume 2.djvu/465

Suaaaua Counr of the United Seam. 4;,-9
ll. Iam, in the feeond place, to examine this quellion by nygg.
the laws and praélice of diliercnt States and Kingdom;. In an- KJYQ
cient Greece, as we loam from Mcram, whole nations defend-
ed their rights before crouded tribunals. Such ocealions as -
thefe excited,_we_are told, all the powers of perfualion; and
the vehenscnce ard enthulialin of the femirnent was gradually
iafufed into the Grecian language, equally fukeptible o llrengtn
and harmony. in thofe days, law, liberty, and reining fcienee,
triiade their benign progrefs in fl.ri€t and graceful union 1 The
rude and degrading league between the bar and feudal batbarifm
was not yet formed. -
When the laws and praélice of particular States have any ap-
plication to the queltion before us ; that application will fumilh ‘ _
what is ¢..tlled an argument a ; becaufe all the inllances
produced will be initances of inllituting and fupporting
fuits againll tholk, who were deemed tlvir own jmengns.
Thefe inliances are ilronger than the prefent one ; becaufe be-
tween the prefent plaintiff and defendant no fuch unequal rela-
tion is alledged to exili.
Columbia atchieved the of that country, which, per-
haps, ought to bear his name. Acontraét made by Cohunbu:
furnilhed the lirll precedent for fupporting, in his difcovered
country, the caufe of injured merit againlt the claims and pre-‘
tentions of haughty and ungrateful power. _His Ion Dan Diego
walled two years in incelfaut, but fruitlefs, folicitataon at the
Court of Spain, for the rights which defcezided to him in conk-
quencc of his fathcr‘s original capitqlaticn. He endeavourcd,
at length, to obtain, by a legal fentence, what he could not
procure from the favour of an intcrefied Monarch. He coin-
menced a fuit againil Ferdinand before the Council, which ma-
naged Indian alfiairs ; and that Court, with integrity which re-
lleéis honour on their proceedings, decided againli the King, and
fxylaincd Don Di:g0'.¢ elaim.*
Other States have inltituted oliicers to judge the proceedings
of their King: : Of this kind were the Epbori of Sporla : of
this kind alfo was thc mayor of thc Palau, and afterwards the
conllablc of Francr.~l·
But of all the laws and inliitutions relating to the prcfcnt
quellion, none is fo {hiking as that defcribcd by thefamous Hol-
roman, in his book entitled Franrogallia. Vlihen the Spaniard.:
of Armgon elec} a King, the reprcfent a kind of play, and in-
troduce a perlbnage, whom they di nify by the name of LAW,
L1 yn/Zizn, of drragon. This pergmage they declare, by 3
public decree, to be greater and .·1c»re powerful than their King,
and thcn addrefs him in the following remarkable exprellions. '
•• Wu, who are of as great worth as you, and can do more ‘
Mmm 2. than